Like the previous two years, come end of May, our son got a really bad cold. But unlike the time when he turned two and three, this year on his fourth birthday he had recovered enough to both go back to his kindergarten and to have a birthday party with grandma. He has been talking about turning four all spring, looking forward to celebrating his birthday, constantly telling me he wanted to have cake and balloons as well as decoration on the curtain, just like last year pappa. During our days at home while he was sick, my son helped me choose what balloons to order, and when they arrived he struggled with himself not to inflate them before his birthday.
When the day finally arrived, he was so excited and happy. I spent the birthday, while he was at his kindergarten, cleaning the house, picking flowers from our little garden wilderness, decorating the house, wrapping presents, and buying cake. When it comes to cake our son was adamant that he wanted to have chocolate cake as well as strawberry cake, and since a birthday only happens once a year we decided to indulge him. So instead of a big cake I bought two pieces of cake for him, one chocolate (where I replaced the cream with a birthday-shinkansen-candle) and one strawberry (the rest of us had to settle for a piece of chocolate cake with cream on top). His grandmother had prepared and brought dinner for us, my son’s favorite fried shrimp and a fish called tai (sea bream) – enough to say, we all had a very delicious dinner (and to my great delight there was even food for us to have leftovers the next day).
While his parents gave their son a little toy and summer-play shoes (clearly a boring gift for a little boy), my parents gave our son a biggish LEGO police station set and after he opened it, there was no showering, no going to bed, no story until he had finished building everything. We ended up being awake quite late so any quiet time with my wife celebrating our son becoming four years was out of the question. From the kindergarten we got a little bottle sparkling cider drink with a note thanking us for being our son’s parents, but we have to wait for another day before sharing it. The gesture from the kindergarten really made an impression on me, and I feel so happy our son can spend his days as a four-year-old in a place with such a warm and caring atmosphere.
Happy birthday my wonderful son, wishing you all the best for the next year in your life.
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